International tourism: Inimitable vs imitable core tourism resources and destination image

Marketing and management scholars agree that organizations should focus on their core resources and capabilities in their effort to create a competitive advantage. However, tourism researchers and practitioners need more empirical evidence from emerging tourism destinations, viz. under what conditions can core destination resources and capabilities deliver this edge more effectively. Consequently, this paper examines the effect of core destination resources, namely natural resources, heritage resources and created resources on destination image, and the moderating effects of customer value and destination satisfaction. International tourists to Qatar (an emerging tourism destination) provided the data for the study. The results show that natural resources and heritage resources are significantly related to the destination image, but created sources are not. Customer value positively and negatively moderates the association of natural resources and heritage resources respectively with destination image. Destination satisfaction positively moderates the relationship between heritage resources and destination image. The findings suggest a preponderance of inimitable endowed resources over imitable created resources in explaining destination image, thus justifying a focus on the former when crafting destination benefits proposal to international tourists. Practitioners and policymakers should also emphasize the unique value of these resources, be mindful of price in/sensitive customers when making destination resources cost/benefit decisions, and deliver delightful experience to customers to enhance destination image. Detailed managerial and theoretical implications of the study are presented.